Part I: Young Olrukkid

Olrukkid Ulvarn, son of Ulrukkif Ulvarn is a denizen of the land of Varisia. Rukki is proud to call the flat, desolate and lonely and wastes of the Storval Plateau his home. The first thing most visiting folk ask Rukki is, “What is a dwarf doing out here?” Indeed. What would lead a dwarf to the wilderness?

Rukki is a son of the Ulvarn family. His parents were traders and merchants based out of the stronghold of Janderhoff. The family businesses were closely tied to the humans on the Storval Plateau, specifically to the Shoanti tribes. The dwarfs would trade metal goods to the tribes in exchange for leather goods, meat, tusks, horns - or of course for gold. For the humans of this area, nothing could even come close to matching the quality of dwarven axes. And the dwarfs welcomed the human’s gold but had also grown to respect some aspects of the culture of the nomadic humans.

As a lad of only 17 years, quite young for a dwarf, Olrukkid and fourteen other members of the Ulvarn clan took to the roads. Eleven months earlier, Ulrukkif had been named an honorary member of the Shoanti tribe of the Shundar-Quah. He and his extended family were taking to the road to celebrate the coming one-year anniversary of the Shundar-Quah Blood Brother Oath. This would involve a large feast, an auroch hunt, and of course the customary trading and haggling.

All in Varisia know that no road is truly safe. The road from Janderhoff to the northern edge of Shoanti lands is a treacherous one. The caravan kept to the edge of the plateau for many miles. A small squadron of ten Shoanti warriors met up with their mercantile allies at the city of Kaer Maga. Progress over the flatlands was good. Then, they ventured north. They had put nearly 100 miles between them and Kaer Maga. Just around the area where the Cinderlands meet the northern edges of the Wyvern Mountains, disaster struck.

The Ulvarn clan was assaulted in the night by Giants. The dwarf guards were awake and at their posts and raised the alarm in short order – but there is only so much a small group of merchants and a few Shoanti warriors can do against nine full grown Giants of the wastelands. Their caravan was ruined. Many of their goods were pillaged. Simply picked up by the Giants who then loped off into the night.

As far as battles go, it was a one-sided slaughter. Ulrukkif was mortally wounded by a Giant’s club whilst fighting valiantly to save his only daughter. It was a truly horrific hit, but the constitution of a dwarf is not to be trifled with. Ulrukkif was able to cling to life for a few hours – long enough to tell his sons, “Avenge my death. Kill these Giants. Leave their skulls to be eaten by ants and bleached by the sun.”

Part II: Rukki Sand Stone

Olrukkid took a Slayer’s Oath at his father’s deathbed. He vowed to kill every Giant he could and to keep his family safe. Oaths are a serious thing in dwarf culture. As the eldest brother, Olrukkid decided that day - that moment - to join the Shoanti and travel north with what remained of their goods. He sent his two younger brothers home back to Janderhoff with their sister and other uncles. They would maintain the family business. They would keep their sister safe. When the sun set that day, Olrukkid Ulvarn said goodbye to his family, left behind his notions of civilized dwarf culture and became Rukki Sand Stone, Giant Slayer.

The goods that travelled north would be an offering to the Shundar-Quah tribe, for five of the ten warriors that travelled with the Ulvarns had fallen alongside Ulrukkif. They would be given proper burial rights in their natural tribal lands. These lands stretched north and east of The Gnashers, between the two rivers. With the Chavali River to the west and the Storval River to the east, this tribe held sway as unmatched trackers and hunters. After the fallen warriors were properly grieved for a period of ten days, Rukki began his integration to the tribe. As the eldest son of a true Shoanti Blood Brother, he was to be allowed to prove himself.

Part III: Rukki Snake Skin

The proving ritual consists of finding and pursuing an Cindersnake and killing it unaccompanied. Rukki departed the camp and the tribe waited. They waited five days. And then six. The elders grew nervous. They waited seven days. And then eight. Almost all gave up hope. On the ninth day, Rukki returned – dragging a Cindersnake behind him larger and longer than any had ever seen before. The tribesmen couldn’t help but notice the two large punctures in Rukki’s shoulder. He had been bit. Yet he had survived for five days alone in the wilderness with no anti-venom. Just dogged dwarven stubbornness and the persistence to not die.

As he entered the inner circle of camp, Rukki held aloft his two jagged knives. “These are the true daggers of the snake bite! Feel my fangs! Hear this Giants and fear my bite – for I come for you next!” Upon this exclamation, Rukki collapsed. The healers tended to his wounds. After three days, Rukki emerged from the healer’s tents to take his Blood Brother Oath.

This made Rukki an honorary member of the Shoanti tribe of the Shundar-Quah, just like his father. That night, he tracked down the massive snake carcass and began crafting himself a suit of snakeskin armor the likes of which had never been seen. Truly, all dwarves are at the hearts and in their hands craftsman. Despite the location and lack of a true smith’s forge, this suit of armor was a unique piece of equipment – perfectly fitted to Rukki and perfectly functional for deflecting stabs and slashes on the plateau.

Over the months, Rukki became more and more a part of the tribe. Less of an outsider, more of a cousin to the Shoanti. His crafting skills were always in demand, as most of the plateau dwellers knew little of metalworking. He was stronger than most, able to lift and carry what it would take two normal (human) braves to carry. As time went on, and as he approached the one year anniversary of his Blood Brother oath - he was invited to join the tribal warrior leaders on the upcoming auroch hunt.

For the first 18 years of his life, Rukki had made use of the typical dwarf tool/weapon of a hammer. For this hunt, knowing a hammer would be unable to bring down a thick skulled auroch, Rukki used the very best of the steel he still had available to make not one, not two, but three curved blades. He then crafted three perfectly formed and perfectly fitted sheaths – one of his left side, one on the right and one on his back. He would carry three of these Kukri’s knowing that he might stab one so hard and so deep into an auroch that it might stay stuck and he would need to let go and grab a new blade to finish the task. Amongst his friends this would come to called called the ‘Snake’s Third Fang’.

Knowing he could never be the fastest, Rukki planned out the hunt and had his tribesmen push an auroch towards him in the dead-end of a cliff face. The warriors made the push, they startled the beast, and the auroch charged in. Through sheer desperation, Rukki stabbed again and again. After moments of desperate hacking and slashing which felt like a lifetime – the beast gave its last ragged breath. Rukki Snake Skin was now a full-fledged member of the tribe. No longer simply honorary, he held all the rights and privileges and the respect of his peers.

Part IV: Life on the Plateau

The deadly sneak attack on the road with his family seemed like an eternity ago but Rukki had not forgot his oath. He was to be a Giant Slayer. He had attained much, the skills of a warrior, a hunter and a tracker. But this oath lay unfulfilled. His tribal brothers knew the terrain in and around The Gnashers including Lake Skotha and Chorak’s Tomb. This was the Giant’s lands.

Lake Skotha: This lake is considered holy by the local hill giants, who refuse to visit it except during funerals. Whenever one of their number dies, he is placed on a barge that is then set a flame and pushed out onto the water, that his spirit might join his ancestors on the mysterious central island. The giants don’t take kindly to outsiders, but those who enter the lake find its bottom coated in a thick layer of giant bones.

The Gnashers: The traditional home of several hill giant tribes, the Gnashers offer the brave explorer a rare glimpse into the vast giant empire that predated human settlement in Varisia. Unfortunately, the brutish natures of its current residents make such expeditions a dangerous gamble at best.

Chorak’s Tomb: The giants of the Storval Plateau were not always the barbarians they are today, and perhaps the best proof of this lies on the tiny island in Lake Skotha known to the giants as Chorak’s Tomb. Here, it is rumored, the descendants of the giant warlord’s honor guard still cling to the remnants of civilization, protecting the last traces of their race’s glory. All of this remains speculation, however, as any sentient creatures attempting to approach the island are bombarded with rocks or shot down with rune-carved ballista bolts. Not even other giants know what secrets lie at the island’s center, and for now, beyond a few glints of metallic structures in the distance, the mystery of Chorak’s Tomb goes unanswered.

The Shoanti were brave, but not stupid. Rukki had developed this same patient cunning. He spent time in the wild with small groups of hunters – following Giant tracks, observing their movements and eventually coming within sight of Giants. There would be terrifying to any man. But to this zealous dwarf, they were simply a target. It was on the last day of Summer in his 25th year that Rukki was to slay his first Giant. The Giant was known as “Old Bones”.

Old Bones, like most Giants, enjoyed his ale. Ale was, however, hard to come by in the remote areas of the plateau. When a shipment of dwarven ale was intercepted and stolen by the Giants, Old Bones took quickly to the drink quaffing down gallon after gallon. In this state, he dozed off in the warm afternoon sun. The Shoanti watched from afar. This was their time to strike.

As dusk fell, Rukki confidently and stealthily made his way to the slumbering Giant. With no hesitation, he drew two of his Kukris and launched himself fearlessly onto the Giants face. Two deep downward stabs into each eye blinded Old Bones. The fangs bit true, the fangs bit deep. But it also infuriated the monster. He rose and lurched about in sightless pain and rage. Rukki made expert swipes to the Giants legs and ankles. Some hit true, some were deflected.

One stab went so deep into Old Bones knee, that the Kukri was stuck. The Snake’s Third Fang was drawn. After minutes of deft maneuvering a felling hamstring blow took the Giant down. He collapsed in pain and Rukki was able to attack the neck to find a central artery.

As he watched the Giant bleed to death in front of him, Rukki Snake Skin found his pack and a small chisel and began to engrave a medium sized stone with dwarven runes reading: “Rukki Sand Stone, Giant Slayer”. He had begun to fulfill his oath.

Part V: Assault on Chorak’s Tomb

Years passed. Over twenty of them. Rukki because an established voice of wisdom within his tribe. He only very rarely ever saw another dwarf. And since he was an oddity – a dwarf that had been embraced by these humans, other dwarfs would shun him. This bothered Rukki but happened so infrequently he was unable to dwell on it greatly. Obviously, he never took a wife. He fathered no children. His role was a hunter, a fighter, a ranger of the plains.

Rukki was as always fearless but stoic. He would bide his time and only ever assault a Giant when the creature was up and distracted and away from its comfortable place. On the road, at night, surprise attacks. The ends justified the means. Rukki would lead small bands of the Shundar-Quah but would never endanger the lives of his adopted people. He experienced some good successes. A special totem pole was built in the middle of the tribal lands on a hill where three trees grew. Rukki would put a notch into that totem each time the tribe slayed a Giant.

Each and every time the tribe slayed a Giant, Rukki would be sure to decapitate the head and leave the skull to be eaten by ants and bleached by the sun. As he honored the oath to his father, he grew more discontented. One would think that each notch on the totem would ease the tension. But for an oathbound Slayer dwarf, the exact opposite is true. His discontent grew until one Spring, Rukki decided that rather than sit and wait and snipe, he would launch an assault into the homelands of the Giants. Thus began the ill-fated assault on Chorak’s Tomb.

Rukki led a hand-picked group of seven Shoanti warriors on what he expected to be a ten-day excursion. His plan was to follow up on the legends of the Giants. His squadron would travel to Lake Skotha carrying specialized destructive gear. They would carry parts of a boat and assemble it on the lakeshore. Rukki and three of his crew would paddle said boat across the lake to the central island. Not knowing exactly what they would find there, the basic plan was to launch their specialized destructive gear at the most obvious population center.

The mission was an observable success up to the lakeshore. Little did the dwarf and his human brethren know that they had been spotted by Giant sentinels about a quarter mile away from the shore. As the team hastily assembled their boat, the Giants closed a trap. At one moment in time, there were two Shoanti warriors standing guard and three Shoanti warriors launching the boat. One Shoanti warrior had started swimming out into the lake to observe and report. Rukki was on the beach with Ekmel, the eldest Shoanti warrior in his group.

It was like a sudden heavy rainstorm on the plains. Not water, but a rain of rocks and boulders. At least ten Giants simultaneously launched debris at the group huddled around the boat in the shallows. At least one human was instantly crushed to death by a boulder the size of a large horse. Others were injured. On the second salvo, one of the Giants scored a direct hit on the boat – smashing it into

splinters and injuring two other warriors with the explosion of wood. After the third salvo of rocks the Giants charged in – their oversized clubs, axes and swords swinging dangerously.

Discretion being the better part of valor, Rukki rallied his team and swam out as far into the lake as they could. They were pursued by the Giants who were unable to swim but able to wade quite far in after them. One of the Shoanti that been injured by a thrown rock was not able to swim as fast as the rest and one of the Giants reached in to the lake and picked him up like a ragdoll. The Giant laughed a cruel laugh and signaled one of his compatriots. A quick game of human wishbone was played – the ugliest tug of war that Rukki had even seen. It ripped his tribesman in half.

This was not a combat that Rukki could win. At that point, with Giants assailing them in the shallows, and with injured friends to attend to, the defeated party had to consign themselves to the current of the Lake. They grabbed for any remnants of the shattered boat to be used as a floatation device. After a few miles of paddling, floating, and swimming, they hit the full current of the Lampblack River. The Giants still trailed them from the shore, their long legs striding as fast or faster than the river current. There seemed to be no escape. All our heroes could do was fight their way across to the opposite bank of the river. They were in foreign lands. Temporarily lost, unsupplied, and certain to be facing unfriendly Giants as soon as the brutes could find a spot shallow enough to ford the river.

But these were no city bred fools. These were hardy Shoanti warriors. Hunters without compare. Skilled at surviving, tracking, hiking, swimming and more of the plateau. They had been in the water for five hours. Rukki did a quick assessment. He was fine, still armed and he had been able to grab his pack. Likewise, Ekmel had his weapons, armor, and some basic supplies. They had lost two of their number as confirmed casualties. One to an airborne rock and one had been ripped in half. Of the remaining four, all were injured in some way. Most were able to walk and swim only with some difficulty.

The Chavali River seemed their best bet. It was a full day’s march to the west, but there were other tribes of Shoanti there. Not friends, perhaps – but certainly not sworn enemies. They would help care for the wounded. The other tribes could help return the Shundar-Quah warriors to their own lands, it was the civil thing to do. But Rukki had other plans.

He would travel the Chavali River to the Varisian Gulf. As a skilled warrior he would gather intelligence and equipment and bring an army to the homelands of the Giants. He would avenge his father. He would avenge his fallen tribesmen. He would lay siege to Chorak’s Tomb. Humans and dwarfs would band together and march against the Giants. “Revenge” he muttered. Over and over again… “Revenge”.

Part VI: Roderick’s Cove and the Varisian Gulf

In the aftermath of the failed assault and with Giants presumably still hot on their heels, the small band hurried across the open grasslands. Indeed, when they were but a few miles from the banks of the Chavali River they were approached by a mounted patrol of Shoanti from the Shriikirri-Quah, the Hawk Tribe. The Shriikirri could not help but notice the facial expressions of the small party and they noticed the fresh wounds and bruises, so they let tribal bygones be bygones. Each Shriikirri rider picked up a Shundar tribesman and carried them away to safety on their horse. The Shriikirri were open minded, but not one of them would consider carrying a dwarf. This was all the same to Rukki. He bid a grim farewell to the surviving members of his tribe, all the time the recent deaths of two of their number weighing heavy on his head.

Rukki held aloft two of his Kukris in a salute as the horses galloped away across the plains. One dwarf would be able to avoid the pursuing Giants. Especially one dwarf so well versed in the frontier. As he hiked day after day he hid in every ditch, he covered his tracks, he lived off the land as only a plateau hunter can.

Descending down the Storval Rise was no challenge. A dwarf is naturally inclined to sheer cliffs and rock faces and years on the plateaus had improved the ability to climb. The area of exposed wall was a mere 500 vertical feet. Upon reaching the bottom, Rukki found himself in a land much more green and lush than he could remember seeing in these past twenty-five years. A forested land, indeed… an extraterrestrial domain. But he knew if he simply followed the Chavali River downstream it would in fact empty into the Varisian Gulf.

Miles and miles of river passed uneventfully. The threat of Giants was passed, but now there was a new foreboding – goblins. Rukki noticed their broken weapons, their armor, and their trash as he hiked dutifully along. “Disgusting vermin” he thought. Eventually, the river reached a set of well-constructed gates on the outskirts of Roderic’s Cove. The three guardsmen stationed there were unsure what to do about a wild dwarf like the one that stood before them.

Rukki explained who he was, but his use of the common tongue was abrasive from years of infrequent use. After a few moments, in somewhat broken common, the dwarf was able to explain that he was a Shoanti and that he hated goblins and that he hated Giants. That was good enough for the guardsmen who knew that the docks had been facing a recent rash of mysteriously scuttled ships and the town was looking to hire able protection. They took the fierce dwarf to see Captain Jess Gildersleeve, port-governor, who was looking to hire mercenary guards for merchant shipping and trading. A scruffy, tattooed dwarf wearing cindersnake skin armor that carries blades on every inch of him and hates goblins seemed like a good hire.

Gildersleeve met with Rukki and hired him as a guard for the next ship out of town, the ‘Easy Windbreaker’ heading south through the bay to Sandpoint. While not exactly talkative, their meeting was effective.

Rukki’s duty was to protect the crew and the cargo. His request to Gildersleeve was simply the understanding and support of Roderic’s Cove in the overall purpose of building a militia to bring war against the Giants of Lake Storval. That, and standard wages. And double the food rations – he was hungry from his voyage through the wilderness. The deal was struck.

Our story picks up with Rukki aboard the ‘Easy Windbreaker’ in the midst of his voyage to Sandpoint, a town he has never been to before. They are two days in to the trip with two days left until they reach the docks of Sandpoint.

Part VI: The Fall of Rukki Sandstorm

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